André Cools

André Cools
André Cools at Saint-Gilles
Born	1 August 1927 Flémalle-Grande
Died	18 July 1991 (aged 63) Liège, Belgium
Occupation	politician

André H.P. Cools (1 August 1927 – 18 July 1991) was a Belgian socialist politician who was assassinated in 1991.

Political career

Cools had a long and distinguished political career. He was Belgian budget minister from 1968 to 1971, Deputy Prime Minister from 1969 to 1972, head of the Belgian Socialist Party from 1973 to 1978, head of the Parti Socialiste from 1978 to 1981, president of the Walloon Council from 1982 to 1985, and minister of the government of the Walloon Region from 1988 to 1990. He was also given the honorific title of Minister of State in 1983. In 1990 he retired from the national political scene after an internal power struggle within the PS but he remained influential in the PS party in Liège.

Cools was noted for his pithy pronouncements. For example, when in 1984 he commented on who he thought the four greatest United States Presidents had been, he said: 'Roosevelt, Roosevelt, Roosevelt and Roosevelt'.

His nickname was "Le maître de Flémalle" (Flémalle's master). Cools had been mayor of Flémalle-Haute from 1964 to 1977 and after the merger from Flémalle from 1977 until his death.

Assassination and aftermath

He was shot dead in Liège in 1991.

While the police were investigating the assassination, several scandals involving André Cools became public (like the Agusta-affair).

In 2003, a Liège trial started, accusing Richard Taxquet (former personal chauffeur and secretary for Alain Van der Biest, a Parti Socialiste minister), Giuseppe "Pino" di Mauro, and others of involvement in the Cools murder. In January 2004, Taxquet and di Mauro were sentenced to twenty years imprisonment. Van der Biest, who was briefly incarcerated as a murder suspect, committed suicide in 2002.

See also

• 1960-1961 Winter General Strike
• Belgian political scandals
• Parliamentary inquiries by the Belgian Federal Parliament

Sources

• André Cools (French)